It may be easy to state how long a LASIK procedure may take, but what isn’t simple is giving a brief description of the entire treatment to a patient.

For few seconds only the LASIK surgery lasers will be applied, and within 15 minutes the procedure is completed. Sounds great right? But you see the entire job takes much more than saying you’ll be done in a jiffy. What really happens in a laser surgery? We will talk about this shortly, however pre-LASIK events will be discussed first.

The usual take off point for a LASIK treatment is a thorough eye examination to know what’s up. Where you rely on contact lens for visual ability, there is need that you stop usage for some time prior to the exam though it follows your lens type. Do you know that the shape of the cornea is changed with the use of contacts? Based on this, one must go back to reading glasses for a period of time so the original shape of the eye can be restored. This allows for measurement to be precise.

Following how much equipment a laser eye surgery centre has, diagnostic timing may not be the same. Our eye analysis at The LASIK is completed in around 1 hour, 30 minutes and we employ 3D measurement starting from the front of the cornea to the retina behind.

Ocular analysis

It involves:

• Acutarget HD: Take’s measurement of the quality of vision and light scatter. Helpful in diagnosing cataracts, over-40 vision, progress of abnormal lens syndrome, and early dry eye.
• LenStar LS 900 APS: Provides 32 exact laser optic measurement of the entire eye which includes corneal astigmatism and size of the pupil
• 3D Maestro Fundus & OCT Scanner: Runs a high resolution, 3D optical coherence tomography eye scan. General health of the optic nerve, macula, and retina is evaluated from this supersonic images
• CEM-530 Specular Microscope: Defines how healthy the cells of the cornea are via automatic counting of the endothelial cells of the central and paracentral cornea
• Pentacam HR: Offer’s high resolution tomography and pictures of size, shape and position of ocular structures that are part of refractive surgery and LASIK. How thick and curved the cornea is – details used to size Vision ICL and for exams after operation is also provided by this procedure.
• Visante Anterior Scanner OCT: Captures the front of the eye where laser surgery takes place in high-resolution images. These pictures are also used to size ICL (Implantable contact lens). Used in analysing complicated cases of LASIK
• Wavescan Wavefront System: Takes measurement of 240 data points inside the eye. With this, customising your LASIK surgery based on discovered eye features is possible

When these accurate measurements and imaging has been collated, the specialist will determine if you’re getting LASIK or not, the type of laser treatment that fits your condition, and the progress of your treatment. We give our patients both those are and are not eligible for LASIK sufficient time to express their visual concerns.

How much time will i spend at the LASIK surgery clinic?

For many cases, 2 to 3 hours may be needed out of your time to get this treatment. What we do within this hour is check you in, prepare you for surgery, perform the surgery, and post surgery check to be sure the procedure is going as planned and you’re in good condition. There may be need to give time for follow-up.

Let’s discuss in details how your surgery time is spent:

• Coming for your appointment 10 minutes to start time is required. Early arrival gives time to fill up paperwork, ask, or provide answers to questions prior to the surgery.
• Our staff will give you a surgical cap to put on while preparing your mind and body for the surgery. Numbing cream will be rubbed on your eyes to remove uneasy sensations.
• A femtosecond laser will be used to form a flap on the cornea surface. For each eye this is done within 18 seconds. This is expected in a laser eye surgery. A spevial drop is applied to prep the eye if it’s a PRK surgery. No flap is created in other surgeries like RLE, SMILE and Visian ICL.
• A new lens will be implanted or an excimer laser will be used to reshape the cornea such that the cause of the visual impairment will be removed. As little as 0.25 microns of correction can be performed by the excimer laser. This is why your diagnosis must be precise.
• In the next few seconds, laser surgery is done with, and where necessary the flap is restored to initial position. In itself, the laser surgery typically takes around 15 minutes to be done.
• Post surgery, you may be asked to rest for a short time while being closely watched to be sure you’re very comfortable.

We do advise patients to revisit the surgeon the day following the surgery to make certain that they are healing correctly. There will be regular checkups in the following 3 to 6 months until your vision get fully restored.

How much time will I take to heal?

The LASIK advises patients to go back home and rest just after their surgery. Please avoid strenuous work. And a friend or family member will have to give you a ride home since you may not be easy to see clearly for the first time after the operation. Like already mentioned, a follow-up visit with your surgeon is needed to monitor how well you can see. No matter whether it is LASIK or its suitable alternatives, there are patients that can resume work after.

Within the first few hours after surgery, your eyes begin to heal, but you must not put pressure on them. Rest your eyes as much as you can. Should there be changes or limitations that are peculiar to your eye condition and lifestyle; these will be communicated during your consultation.

Where you need more information or in need of a laser surgery provider, you can call or visit our laser eye surgery centre in London and we would be happy to help you.